The court holds that two customers of an electroplating company did not "arrange for" the disposal of the company's hazardous waste under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §107(a), and, therefore, the company could not seek contribution from the customer...
One of the most prominent issues in the Congressional debate over reauthorization of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund) has been how to reduce "transaction costs" while at the same time fairly and expeditiously resolving liability disputes. This Dialogue asks: Would the allocation procedures proposed in last year's Superfund reauthorization bills meet those sometimes conflicting goals?
Earlier this year in KFC Western, Inc. v. Meghrig, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that private parties may obtain restitution of the costs of cleaning up contaminated property under §7002(a)(1)(B) of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The Ninth Circuit's ruling in KFC Western opened the way for private parties to use the RCRA citizen suit provision to recover their costs of investigating, studying, and cleaning up contaminated property from responsible parties.
The court holds that under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the former owners of a contaminated site in Georgia are liable for the disposal of hazardous waste at the site. A potentially responsible party (PRP) shipped containers of hazardous waste t...
A district court held that a property owner may go forward with its RCRA claims against a former tenant that stored toluene in a building on the site. The owner demolished all but the basement floor of the building. High concentrations of methane gas exist under the building due to degrading toluene...
It is said that nothing is constant except change. For industry trying to keep up with its environmental obligations, perhaps the more appropriate saying would be that nothing is constant except regulatory uncertainty. Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has pursued wide-sweeping regulatory initiatives under virtually every major environmental statute. These include the Agency's groundbreaking efforts to monitor and regulate mobile and stationary sources of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
A district court held that the owner of PCB-contaminated property is not entitled to injunctive relief under RCRA compelling the former owner to either pay for future cleanup costs at the property or take over remediation in its entirety. Injunctive relief is not available when abatement of the ...
The Federal Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision granting the buyer and seller of an energy company damages for the U.S. government's ongoing breach of its contractual obligation to collect and dispose of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) generated at a nuclear plant in Plymou...
The Supreme Court of South Carolina held that the South Carolina Solid Waste Policy and Management Act (SWPMA) does not preempt a county ordinance requiring solid waste generated within the county to be deposited at a county or county-approved landfill. A hauling company and a landfill that oper...
A district court dismissed a development company's CERCLA contribution claim against a large corporation for costs the company incurred investigating and remediating environmental contamination on property caused by the corporation's legal predecessor. The company failed to state a claim for con...